03-10-2020

Introduction to
Programming &
Python

Brandon Krakowsky

What is Programming?
• A program is a collection of instructions that performs a specific task (or set of tasks) when
executed
• Programming is a way of specifying (or writing) the instructions
• Programming languages vary in many ways:
- Syntax: Structure or grammar of the language
- Semantics: Meaning of the code. What will it do when I run it?
- Speed
- Memory management
- Etc.

Property of Penn Engineering | 2

Client-Side vs. Server-Side Programming

• Client-side programs run on a client
- Client-side programming has mostly to do with a user’s interaction with a user interface
• For example, a web page is a client-side program that runs in a web browser, the client
- Common client-side programming languages are:
• HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Server-side programs run on a server (or computer)
- Server-side programming has mostly to do with the interaction between a user interface
and a program on a server
• For example, a web page sends messages (or requests) to a program on a server and it
processes user input and interacts with a database
- Common server-side programming languages are:
• Python, Java, PHP, and ASP.NET

Property of Penn Engineering | 3

1
 03-10-2020

What is Python?
• Python was named after the TV show Monty Python’s Flying Circus
• Python is a high-level programming language
- Provides abstraction from the details of the computer
• Does most of the work in communicating with the computer
• The code is intuitive and easy to understand
• Python is an object-oriented programming (OOP) language
- Organized around objects rather than “actions”

Property of Penn Engineering | 4

What is Python?
• Python is an interpreted programming language
- Does not need to be compiled
• Does not need to be converted from one language to another
• For example: Java
- Is interpreted by a Python interpreter
• It’s small and can run on any kind of computer!
- This means that sometimes it’s difficult to debug your Python programs
• Do not make the mistake of typing out large chunks of code and not testing it at all

Property of Penn Engineering | 5

Why Python?
• Python is an open source programming language
- It’s free!
• Python is powerful, flexible, and intuitive
- There are many Python libraries and resources available online
- Closely resembles the English language
• Python is good for beginners and a great foundation for other languages!
• Python can be used for:
- Artificial intelligence/machine learning/natural language processing
- Web development
- Data analysis & visualization
- Game programming
- Desktop GUIs
- Many other purposes!

Property of Penn Engineering | 6

2
 03-10-2020

Configuring Python & Tools

Property of Penn Engineering | 7

Download/Installing Python
• We will be using Python 3 in this course
- If you already have Python 2 installed, please upgrade to Python 3
• To download and install Python, go here: https://www.python.org/downloads/ (Download the
latest version)
• This download/install comes bundled with IDLE (Python’s Integrated Development and Learning
Environment)
- Includes an interactive Python interpreter and script editor
- We’ll eventually be using IDLE to write and run Python scripts

Property of Penn Engineering | 8

Jupyter Notebook
• For today, we’ll use Jupyter Notebook to write and run Python code
• Jupyter Notebook runs in a browser on your computer
- Includes interactive Python interpreter and script editor
- To install, download Anaconda, a data science platform. This will install Python and Jupyter
Notebook all at once: https://www.anaconda.com/download (Download the latest version)
- To run, open Terminal on Mac or Command Prompt on Windows and run: jupyter notebook
- Or launch from the Anaconda Navigator

For reference: http://jupyter.org/install.html

Property of Penn Engineering | 9

3
 03-10-2020

Using Jupyter Notebook – Keyboard Shortcuts

• To execute code in a cell in a notebook
Select the cell and press CTRL + Enter
• To execute code in a cell in a notebook, and select the next cell
Select the cell and press Shift + Enter
• To insert a cell above
Select the cell and press a
• To insert a cell below
Select the cell and press b
• To delete a cell
Select the cell and press dd
• To get help with Jupyter Notebook (Keyboard shortcuts)
Anywhere outside of a cell, press h
• To get help with a Python function
Put cursor inside parenthesis of function, and press Shift + Tab

Property of Penn Engineering |

10

Using Jupyter Notebook – Exporting a Python Script

• It’s normal to write, run, and maintain all of your code in a Jupyter Notebook file (.ipynb)
• That said, you CAN export a Python script (.py) from a notebook file
- Go to “File” --> “Download As”  “Python (.py)”

Property of Penn Engineering | 11

11

Python Help – Other Tools

• Other Python Tools (IDEs)
- PyCharm: Python IDE
- https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/download/
- We’ll use this too!
- Eclipse with PyDev: Python IDE for Eclipse
- Repl.it: Online editor and interpreter for Python (and other languages)
- Text Editors: Emacs, VI, Sublime, etc.

Property of Penn Engineering | 12

12

4
 03-10-2020

Python Help – Language Resources

• Python Language Resources
- Python Language Reference: https://docs.python.org/3/reference/index.html

Property of Penn Engineering | 13

13

Python Language

Property of Penn Engineering | 14

14

How Do I Write Python?

• Use the most basic Python print command to output to the console
print(“Hello World!”)
print(‘Hello World in single quotes’)
• You can concatenate (link together) characters and strings using the print command
print(‘Today’, ‘is a good day!’)
• Change what ends the print statement. (This is normally ‘\n’, i.e. new line)
print(‘Good morning,’, end = ‘ ‘)
print(‘Brandon!’)
• Specify the separator between arguments to print. (This is normally ‘ ‘, i.e. space)
print(‘Good night’, ‘Brandon’, sep = ‘, ‘)

Note: Commands in light blue can be typed directly into a Jupyter Notebook file

Property of Penn Engineering | 15

15

5
 03-10-2020

Basic Data Types

• Every value has a type associated with it
• Integer (int): Positive or negative whole number with no decimal points
8
-1
• You can do math
2 + 3
5 – 6
2 * 3
• Remember the order of operations. You can use parentheses ()
3 + 5 – 2 * 6
(3 + 5 – 2) * 6
• Use the type command to test if an object is an int
type(99)

Property of Penn Engineering | 16

16

Basic Data Types

• Float (float): A positive or negative number that contains a decimal point
1.3
23.0
-5.1
2 * 3.5
7 / 2.0
• Test if an object is a float
type(0.1)

Property of Penn Engineering | 17

17

Basic Data Types - Arithmetic Operators

• Arithmetic operators
+ addition
- subtraction
* multiplication
/ division
// integer division, divides and returns the largest whole number, discarding the fractional result
(ex. 3 // 2 = 1)
** exponent
% modulus, divides and returns the remainder (ex. 7 % 5 = 2)

Property of Penn Engineering | 18

18

6
 03-10-2020

Basic Data Types - Division

• Division: Divides
3 / 2
3.1 / 2
• Integer division: Divides and returns the largest whole number, discarding the fractional result
3 // 2
3.1 // 2
• Modulus: Divides and returns remainder
3 % 2
4 % 2
3.1 % 2

Property of Penn Engineering | 19

19

Basic Data Types

• Boolean (bool): True or False
1 == 2
1 < 2
1.2 >= 1.2
‘Car’ == ‘Car’
‘Car’ == ‘car’
‘1’ == 1
‘1’ != 1
• Every object in Python has a boolean value. Test if an object is True or False
bool(False)
bool(True)
bool(7)
bool(7 == 0)

Property of Penn Engineering | 20

20

Basic Data Types - Comparison Operators

• Comparison operators compare values and determine their relationship
== equal
!= not equal (can also use <>)
< less than
> greater than
<= less than or equal to
>= greater than or equal to

Property of Penn Engineering | 21

21

7
 03-10-2020

Basic Data Types

• How do we know that 500002 is an even number?
500002 % 2 == 0
• Is 500003 odd?
500003 % 2 >= 1

Property of Penn Engineering | 22

22

Basic Data Types

• String (str): Characters enclosed within single or double quotes
‘Nice!’
‘Nice’ == “Nice”
• Concatenate (link together) characters and strings using a +
‘Wow!’ + ‘ Python is cool!’
• Test if an object is a str
type(‘yes’)
type(“103”)
type(103)

Property of Penn Engineering | 23

23

Basic Data Types

• Printing multiple strings
print(‘Name:’, ‘Brandon’, ‘Krakowsky’)
• Printing a concatenated string
print(‘Name: ‘ + ‘Brandon’ + ‘ Krakowsky’)
• Printing strings with special characters
print(‘Brandon\’s last name is Krakowsky’)
- In Python strings, the backslash (\) is a special character, also called the "escape" character
- Prefixing a special character (e.g. single quote) with a backslash (\) turns it into an ordinary
character

Property of Penn Engineering | 24

24

8
 03-10-2020

Basic Data Types - Casting

• Converting from one data type to another
12374/621
• Did you get something like 19.92592…? What if you cast it to an integer?
int(12374/621)
- Be careful, it will round DOWN the value to the nearest integer!
• If you really want to round a float to the nearest integer, you can use Python’s built-in round
function
round(12374/621)
• You can cast from a string to an integer
int(‘1’)

Property of Penn Engineering | 25

25

Basic Data Types

• Printing with numbers
print(4 / 2)
• Printing with strings and numbers
print(‘4 % 2 =’, 4 % 2)
• Printing with strings and numbers concatenated
print(‘4 % 2 = ’ + 4 % 2)
- This will return an error!
- You’re trying to add a str to an int
• Try casting
print(‘4 % 2 = ’ + str(4 % 2))
• Printing with strings and booleans concatenated
print(‘Is 4 even? ’ + str(4 % 2 == 0))

Property of Penn Engineering | 26

26